


if i never meet you again

by ErinHasse



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Angst, Drabble Format, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene, Reunion, Separation, of sorts, platonic, romantic, whichever floats your boat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-26 05:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6226255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinHasse/pseuds/ErinHasse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick, Judy, the days of separation after the press conference, and their own reunion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nick

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself i wasn't going to fall into another fandom. smh.  
> Anyways, drabble fic, with angst.  
> Enjoy.

Day 1

His anger does not fade – that stewing, red hot pit sitting in the middle of his stomach, brewing fire and shooting heat into his veins.

 

_(At least, not yet.)_

 

But for now he stalks the streets with his shoulders hunched and his mouth pulled into a half-snarl and it’s all he can do without _descending over the edge._

 

 

* * *

 

He finds Finnick.

 

Well.

 

Finnick finds him.

 

Finnick’s window is rolled down, with the radio blaring a near _infuriating_ song, parked at a no-parking zone, and after tossing a quick look over relatively empty streets, looks at him.

 

The shorter fox does not comment on his sorry state, taking in the tense line of his shoulders and hard jaw and _shrugging_ before:

 

“You gonna get in or not?”

 

Nick blinks; once, then twice, then wordlessly opens the passenger’s side door and collapses into his seat.

 

( _The channel changes and he hears her voice on the radio and a paw lashes out to turn it off.)_

.

.

.

( _Finnick, mercifully, stays quiet._ )

 

* * *

 

His anger ebbs away by the time 15 minutes of driving has passed, so Nick does not say anything when they pass stores and televisions and radios and announcements and _her voice and her face and her—_

Nick sighs and brings a paw up to rub at his muzzle.

 

“Where are we going, Nick?” Finnick asks and Nick raises his head to look at him.

 

Huh. He didn’t notice he’d been slouching.

 

“Home,” or whatever he calls that crappy apartment he owns, “I’m…”

 

 _(Disappointed_.)

 

“…tired,” he finishes, instead, and Finnick nods before stepping on the gas pedal.

 

Eventually they get out of downtown and there’s less noise.

 

They reach his apartment building, and Finnick tells him to, “Get some _fucking_ shut-eye, you look like you’re dyin’.” before driving off.

 

( _Up in his room, Nick opts to let his own radio chatter away._ )

 

* * *

 

Day 2

He wakes how he usually does:

 

Groggy, still tired, and vaguely pissed off. Okay, that last one was _un_ usual, but.

 

His eyes slide to the side and he notes that his radio has run out of batteries.

 

Oh well.

 

He slips out of bed, takes a shower, brushes his teeth – basically doing what he’d always done without –

 

He spits.

 

* * *

 

 _Crappy weather for a crappy day,_ he thinks, eyeing the turbulent storm brewing.

 

They say it would pass soon enough. Nothing serious.

 

Nick shuts his blinds and goes out.

 

* * *

 

Nick walks, fur well-groomed and smile particularly smarmy, hands in his pockets and _professionally_ ignoring the hostility being thrown his way and Finnick’s.

 

But mostly him.

 

He hears whispers, “ _Isn’t that the—_ ”

 

And—

 

“ _It is!_ ”

_And—_

_“…predators…no….can’t…”_

Nick walks.

 

* * *

 

Nothing much happens that day, not really, even as Finnick curses that their income has been cut nearly in half and Nick can’t muster up enough of a fuck to give.

 

* * *

 

Day 3

_“Hero Resigns”_

 

Nick stares at the headline, stares again, stares at Finnick who stares back before ripping it out of the newspaper boy’s hands and almost _glares_ at it.

 

Finnick sighs and tosses the newspaper boy a few coins, maybe, but Nick doesn’t really pay much attention to it.

 

Ju— _Carrots’_ face stares up at him, purple eyes grey and bags heavy under them with her ears drooping behind her.

 

_“I don’t deserve my badge.”_

 

And Nick reads it and reads it again because it _boggles him that she’d throw everything away why would she throw everything away—_

 

And it goes like this:

 

“ _I apologize for what I had said during the press conference._ ”

 

“ _I regret and take it all back._ ”

 

_“I was wrong. I’m sorry.”_

And Nick finds his claws ripping through the paper.

 

( _He keeps it and reads through the article over and over and over—_ )

 

* * *

 

Day 4

Nick finds himself at the bridge and staring at his own reflection on the water.

 

He looks up at the blue sky.

 

He sighs. He holds a carrot-pen with one hand and wonders how she managed to spin him over his own heels in the course of less than two days.

 

_Dumb bunny._

 

( _When will you be back?_ )

* * *

 

Day 5

He brings a chair and his old shades and bought a drink to pass the time.

 

Finnick calls him.

 

She’s here.


	2. Judy

Day 1

She hands in her badge, and properly resigns, and walks out of the station with her head low.

 

That’s it.

* * *

 

She can’t go back to her apartment, not yet, she had one last thing to do.

* * *

 

Judy goes to the more prominent news station in town, and they stare at her heavy shoulders and the bags under her eyes and she _couldn’t give a shit._

She had a job to do, her last one:

They surround her soon enough, and Judy opens her mouth:

 

“ _I have an announcement, and public apology, to make._ ”

 

Done.

 

She was done.

* * *

 

Day 2

Judy can’t bear to look out the window.

 

(“ _— everyone comes to Zootopia thinking they –_ ”)

 

So she opts to stare at her feet.

* * *

 

She watches a mother pull her young away from a lion and it _hits_ her like a knife and _twists._

_(Irony, she calls it, that she leaves her dream city as it crumbles around her.)_

 

Judy closes her eyes and tries to fall asleep.

-

She arrives in Bunnyburrow and finds the counter still going on and on and despite herself she cracks a smile.

 

(“ _We are good at multiplying.”_ )

 

Her family welcomes her back with hugs and smiles and eyes creasing in a way she knew wasn’t true but—

 

_“You should’ve known you couldn’t do it.”_

 

And—

_“Trying can only get you so far.”_

 

_And—_

_“—Go back to Bunnyburrow, or whatever you called it.”_

_(Judy goes to sleep and none of her siblings go to her in fear of her burning eyes.)_

* * *

 

Day 3

“Judes?”

 

“Hm?” she tries, really she does, but whatever sunny disposition she is trying to emulate falls flat even to her own ears.

 

Her sibling – 105th youngest? – twitches his ear, purple eyes gleaming at her innocently, “Are you still a cop?”

 

And _oh,_ she thought, as something grabbed at her heart and she felt something _bleed,_ “Not anymore,” she says, instead of—

 

Instead of.

 

“…Not anymore,” she repeats softly, “But…you can still—!”

 

“Try everything? Chase after my dreams?”

 

It's not malicious. She knows this.

 

But.

 

Judy’s smile freezes on her face.

 

(“ _You can’t just sing a song and—_ ”)

 

Her sibling peers up at her, eye hopeful.

 

“Yes,” she says, instead of releasing the scream bubbling up her throat.

 

“I’m sure you can!” she finishes, with a big (fake) smile and a thumbs-up, instead of giving in to the heavy, _heavy_ weight chaining her limbs and hopes and dreams down, down, _down._

* * *

 

Day 4

She is at the stand, and yes, she knows she looks morose, her ears are drooping behind her head and her eyes have a half-lidded feel to them and she was so—

 

_Tired._

It didn’t make sense.

 

Judy didn’t really care.

* * *

 

She is surprised when Gideon comes with an apology on the tip of his tongue and she doesn’t notice her parents cracking small, relieved smiles behind them.

* * *

 

And then the innocuous flowers’ history gives way and she jumps into the car, heart beating faster than ever before, shouting promises out the window to, “I’ll take it back soon, thanks and bye!”

* * *

 

Now.

 

Judy was many things.

 

She was impulsive, brave, and smart, but _prejudiced—_ not free from _prejudice –_ and she _knew_ this now, better than ever before.

( _So. This is how it ends._ )

* * *

 

Day 5

She looks.

 

She doesn’t find him.

 

Her time is running out.

 

She spots red in the corner of her eye and throws the door open to slam it behind her in her haste.

 

Judy knocks; once, then twice.

 

Finnick comes out with his nostrils blaring and a bat in the ready, but his eyes soften when he sees her.

 

She thanks him, over and over, and he brushes off her gratitude with a hidden smile before telling her to, ‘Go get that idiot so he stops being such a _fucking_ train wreck.”

 

It sends a tinge of pain through her, the blow of humiliation and a failed friendship due to her shortcomings threatening to make her keel over, but really now—

 

When has that ever stopped her before?

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating is still such a novelty to me, lol.
> 
> Toss-up between Finnick's POV or the actual reunion, next.


	3. Finnick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He feels old.

Day 1

He sees the conference and the most he reacts with is a twitch of his ear and a slightly raised eyebrow.

 

 _Hooo, boy,_ he thinks, kicking open the back doors of his car and slamming it shut behind him once out, _Better go find Nicky._

 

Jackass he may be, but even he is not willing to let his partner in crime possibly rage at everyone at the streets. He’s not _heartless._

 

…Also, finding partners is a pain and he sorta likes Wilde, well enough.

* * *

 

He finds him.

 

And he finds him half-dragging his own ass around town in the saddest state he’s ever seen him in.

 

So he parks at a no-parking spot, because why not, and rolls down his window and making sure to play Gazelle’s Try Everything on the radio, because everything else would be blaring with bunny’s voice.

 

He opens his mouth, “You gonna get in or not?”

 

And Nicky stares at him for a bit, looking a little lost and more than a little upset and _wow,_ he thinks, _that bunny’s got him good._

But, he doesn’t say that, doesn’t utter a word when Nick wordlessly opens the door and collapses on the seat.

 

(And if the channel changes and Nick’s paw lashes out to change it, he can pretend he doesn’t see anything. He _is_ watching the road, after all.)

* * *

 

Fifteen minutes later and he’s still got his partner in crime moping in shotgun.

 

Finnick dearly, _dearly_ wants to shake his head at the two, because he’s seen teenagers more mature than them, but knows that emotions are weird, and so he keeps his mouth shut.

 

“Where are we going, Nick,” he asks, instead.

 

After a beat, Nick replies, “Home. I’m…”

 

 _And long silence we meet again_ , Finnick thinks.

 

“…Tired,” Nick finally finishes.

 

Finnick nods, because there’s not much to do, and steps on the gas pedal.

 

 

When they reach Nick’s building, Finnick calls after him to, “Get some _fucking_ shut-eye, you look like you’re dyin’,” before driving off.

 

* * *

 

Finnick picks him up and Nick looks less inclined to, say, snap at everyone, and probably commit something conspicuously illegal and get his ass busted, and goes to one of the spots downtown with less supervision but not quite included in the seedier halves of the city.

 

The stares?

 

Eh.

 

The whispering?

 

 _Meh_.

 

The accusations?

 

Not new, but slightly more annoying now.

* * *

 

 

Finnick did not often censor himself.

 

But this is one scenario that definitely earns it.

 

And so he will not narrate the multitude of insults, curses, slurs, and some creative phrases aimed against probably respectable mothers.

 

Because his income has been cut in half, and he is ready to murder someone.

 

Instead, he peers at his sulking partner and looks at his phone, trying to see if he can pull a few strings.

* * *

 

Day 3

_Holy shit._

The title “Hero Resigns” stares at them from the paper in the boy’s hands, and he stares at Nick who stares back before the younger fox snatches the damn thing and nearly giving everyone a heart attack.

 

Which is no joke at his old age and he promises, silently, retribution for himself.

 

But one look at his partner and he sees Nick’s muzzle pressed against the paper, eyes frantically flicking over words. He gets a glimpse of a depressed bunny on the cover, and he could comment on the younger fox’s behavior, yes, but he’ s not _heartless._

 

He sighs, rolling his eyes a bit and tosses a few coins towards the newspaper boy.

 

Day 4

They don’t meet today.

 

Finnick suspects that Nick may have gone to the bridge to sulk, or introspection, or some shit, but for now the relative solitude is a blessing, and he sleeps at the back of his van.

 

(Later that night Nick texts him and he replies with ‘You’re both acting like goddamn teenagers,’ because it needed to be said, and ‘Sure.’)

* * *

 

Day 5

He wakes to the sound of frantic knocking and irritation flares up.

 

He couldn’t put it pass some of the braver crazies to try and beat him up, probably, so he takes his bat and tells himself not to hurt anyone too badly.

 

Finnick opens the door and comes face to face purple eyes.

 

Huh.

 

The bunny babbles and worries and Finnick rolls his eyes, triyng not to smile, and tells her where Nick is.

She thanks him, over and over, and Finnick firmly tells himself he is not feeling maternal towards two full grown adults acting like teenagers and that he is only acting out of the goodness of his soul.

 

…Yeah.

 

He brushes her off with a half-smirk and tells her to, ‘Go get that idiot so he stops being such a _fucking_ train wreck.’

 

She runs off, and Finnick shakes his head to himself and mutters, “ _Kids_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea why this took so long.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll post Judy's side next.


End file.
